listening SUPERPOWER podcast

How do we open up ourselves to possibilities, new ideas, and solutions? In this episode, Jane shares the impact of generative listening. She speaks about how her life and relationships have deepened and have become more meaningful as she has learned and practiced this type of listening. She shares stories about how listening helps others to think for themselves independently, with courage, imagination, and grace. And how this has business impact. She highlights that when we listen in a generative way, we give people the opportunity to become better speakers, better thinkers, and better presenters; we articulate our message well because we know we aren't judged and interrupted. She describes how organizations can integrate listening to create an environment of inclusion. Jane Adshead-Grant has a purpose, which is listening. Listening to ignite the best thinking, ideas and solutions in others. In her executive coach and facilitator roles she supports individuals and teams develop person-centric leadership and cultures where everybody matters generating people and business growth in harmony. She is a master credited coach and mentor coach with the ICF and emerging faculty member with Time to Think. Jane has over 30 years' experience within people focused roles in professional and financial services. "We make a choice to listen. And when we make a choice to listen, when we employ discipline to listen at this level, lives change, lives change because this listening creates in another personal transformation." - Jane Adshead-Grant Listen IN Notes: 00:43 - Jane describes her shift in thinking about different kinds of listening when she discovered Nancy Kline's work on the Thinking Environment. How it changed her life as a coach, her relationships with her husband, her children, her friends. She learned how to listen at a deeper level, to generate the very best in others. 02:24 - What is generative listening? How it can be a transformational experience 03:31 - Jane's understanding of generative listening: what we are doing is we are a generative force through listening. 08:10 - How we build the muscle of generative listening in an organization: it requires practice, and it requires discipline. 11:49 - How to work with leaders who might be afraid of generative listening. Mindset first: freeing your mind as a leader, that you have to solve the challenge or the development need for that individual. 14:39 - Stories of surprising outcomes in working with leaders in organizations. One story describes a lead counsel observing and modeling after Nancy and taking it to his team members and meetings. 17:24 - The value of 'role modeling' and showing appreciation 18:49 - Jane sharing stories of leaders' transformational experiences in adapting generative listening in how they communicate with their clients 22:27 - Listening to helps people connect with their own resourcefulness 25:39 - What this journey in generative listening revealed to her and the realizations she has now that she had not thought of before 30:22 - What might get in the way of people listening deeply, what assumptions might one be holding about oneself or another, or the situation that prevents them from listening? 32:53 - The one word to describe the listening that helped Jane: The experience was insightful. It would reveal to her that she had within her what it took to get through what she was struggling with at the time. 38:04 - What her experience looks like when it's difficult to listen to someone who has a very different view from your own. When do you not listen to somebody? 41:14 - Jane sharing about the research she's doing now: looking at the impact of listening training on the participants and business outcomes. 43:50 - Jane shares simple exercises to help develop your listening capacity: First, reflect and notice the impact. Second, practice listening to someone free from interruption and judgment. 47:24 - A thought Jane shares that would help organizations consider listening: Think about the inclusivity within their organization and how listening can create an environment of inclusion. 49:49 - How she keeps abreast with listening: Regular practice, constantly observing what works, what gets in the way of people listening, and making connections with people. 50:52 - Jane shares an important thought we need to pay attention to when listening. 51:22 - Jane sharing her appreciation of Raquel's work -- the breadth and depth that she brings to the topic of listening. Key Takeaways: "I think the leader, in this way of listening, is that their role is to help that individual think more for themselves -- creatively, resourcefully, independently. This will become a lot more empowering for people rather than the leader telling them what they need to be doing differently." - Jane Adshead-Grant "When others embrace this skill and recognize the impact of listening and take it wholeheartedly into their way of leading. It's just wonderful." - Jane Adshead-Grant "I have seen…individuals transform their lives through a time when they felt wholly listened to, and for the first time revealed what was holding them back from living the life that they chose to live." - Jane Adshead-Grant "As I rewind, when I started my journey on listening, I didn't know the power and the transformation that listening can generate." - Jane Adshead-Grant "I think to be a great listener; it's very much an experiential experience. And so we need to practice both, we need to practice listening. And at the same time, we need to experience what it feels like to be really listened to." - Jane Adshead-Grant "Meetings are one of the most common ways of exchanging ideas and being together in the ways of working and I love to introduce rounds --giving people the equal turn to share their thoughts and ideas on a question... And I always love to start meetings with an appreciation round so that people feel that they've joined the meeting. Because people don't feel they've contributed...until they've actually spoken." - Jane Adshead-Grant "How do I ask questions that ignite the best in others? And to your point, it comes with listening. It's not simply about asking a question it's listening to how the person is responding." - Jane Adshead-Grant "One important thing to pay attention to, is noticing the impact of listening and appreciating people when they do it well." - Jane Adshead-Grant "Setting myself up as a practitioner rather than an expert keeps me abreast with my listening." - Jane Adshead-Grant Notes/Mentions: Thinking Environment by Nancy Kline: https://www.coachingcultureatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/Nancy-Klines-Thinking-Environmnet.pdf Connect With Jane Adshead-Grant: janeadsheadgrant.com Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

Everyone has had life and work experiences that we are afraid to share with others. Yet keeping it inside can influence how we feel and impact our behaviors at work and at home. And we may not always fully understand our experiences and our behaviors. This episode is an amazing example of how listening can be healing and transformational even when people experience atrocities that are the toughest a human being can imagine. If listening sparks resilience as it does in this story, then it can spark resilience in all of us, every day, moment by moment. Liliane Pari Umuhoza is a Rwandan public speaker, human rights advocate, and founder of the "Women Genocide Survivors Retreat" program – a program that acts as a support system for the women survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She uses listening to create a transformative safe space for survivors to heal and improve life both psychologically and financially. Liliane currently works for Foundation Rwanda as a project officer. Through her background education in Peace and Conflict studies, work with nonprofit organizations, and life experience of surviving the Genocide against the Tutsi, Liliane uses her awareness to fight against injustice and summon global dialogue and actions against human right abuses. She has spoken at events related to peace-building, human rights and women empowerment at universities, the UN, the Embassy of Rwanda in Washington DC, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, Oregon Historical Society Museum, and many others. She is now based in Kigali, Rwanda. In this episode, Liliane shares how powerful listening can be. It was 14 years after the Genocide when she shared her story for the first time. Her best friend's listening was the spark for her healing journey. This experience along with listening to stories of women in her community and noticing how this lifted the burden from their faces inspired the program she founded – Women Genocide Survivors Retreat – to support life-transforming experiences through listening to each other's stories. Liliane shares how she has created the space for magic to be possible facilitating genuine listening in a group who has experienced trauma and how this transforms their lives after, both at home and at work. Enjoy this conversation with Liliane, as we collectively work to make this world a better and safer place for everyone. "What makes a space safe enough for people to share is about how we present ourselves in those spaces. Do we really listen without judging? Do we make people safe enough when they are around us? How do we communicate with the people around us? It's just the simple gestures, but they can be big in someone's life... and that starts from our homes." - Liliane Umuhoza Valuable resource: Survivors' Fund https://survivors-fund.org.uk/news/women-genocide-survivors-retreat-3/ Genocide Survivors Foundation (GSF) https://genocidesurvivorsfoundation.org/survivors-retreat/ College Oratorical Speech (Peace and Conflict Studies) https://youtu.be/ZhSuEaL9MOI Listen IN Notes: 0:39 – A narrative about the first time Liliane noticed the power of listening: knowing her story and accepting the reality of her experience, the spark of her healing journey. 17:51 - How Liliane was inspired to use her experiences to support her community: founding a women's retreat. 19:37 - She talks about her time as an intern at Survivors Fund; listening to the survivors' stories in their mother language and translating those into English; another moment where she felt the power of listening. 23:29 – Liliane shares what the Women Genocide Survivors Retreat program is all about. 26:20 – What makes listening and sharing our stories powerful in her perspective. 29:41 – Liliane shares what they do before and during the retreat in order to create a safe space; her experience with NGOs and its relation to the program. 32:05 – She remembers the situation of a survivor who is HIV positive from the genocide and the power the retreat had to transform her life. 34:44 – How she created a space of psychological safety for this to happen with a large group of women; The things to say so that participants are engaged and co-create their experience. 38:52 – How Liliane observes the weight being lifted from the survivors' shoulders; A participant's story in relation to the program's impact on a survivor's life. 46:03 – She talks about how she's thinking further about listening and it's power; How her life changed and how she wants to make sure people receive the same support around the world. 50:03 - Liliane shares her vision to impact schools. 51:43 - Sharing a personal experience where she failed to reflect on who she is too. Key Takeaways: "My generation grew up in a very messed-up environment where everybody was in a survival mode – figuring out where to start, but we survived." - Liliane Pari Umuhoza "I've been using the power of listening to also help people heal." - Liliane Pari Umuhoza "What shame does to a human being is that it makes you feel like you're not worthy, that you don't matter; but when you share your story and you see that people are listening to you, it brings back that sense of worthiness, brings back the confidence, the love for yourself. It helps people to connect as human beings and brings back the sense of humanity in people." - Liliane Pari Umuhoza "I think what's wrong with some organizations is that we work for the people and not with the people." - Liliane Pari Umuhoza "Because people shared their stories, people felt seen and valued." - Liliane Umuhoza "There's a lot of people nowadays that their actions are not really who they are… If we don't give people the space to tell us what exactly is going on with their lives, we're going to put them in a box of their actions, and that's not who they really are. That's not gonna help them. It's gonna make the situation even worse. So, if we could create those safe spaces for people to share, there's a lot of things that can be changed." - Liliane Umuhoza Notes/Mentions: Survivors' Fund: https://survivors-fund.org.uk/news/women-genocide-survivors-retreat-3/ Genocide Survivors Foundation (GSF: https://genocidesurvivorsfoundation.org/survivors-retreat/ College Oratorical Speech (Peace and Conflict Studies: https://youtu.be/ZhSuEaL9MOI Connect with Liliane Umuhoza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianepariumuhoza Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-ark-b2067613/?originalSubdomain=de

How do we listen to really know if we are speaking our truth in our daily grind? When do we know if we are using our authentic voice or if we are repeating repetitive, memorized scripts inside our own bubbles of agreement? Elissa shares stories and examples to help us become more connected to our own inner truth, both at work and at home. This helps our ability to problem solve and create new solutions so that we don't get stuck in stress, fear, and a feeling of unsafety. She also shares her 4-step model to transform conversations from a cancel culture into a conversation culture as a way forward to truly stand up for what's right with openness, acceptance, and love. Enjoy this conversation with Elissa. Understand listening beyond what we typically consider by listening to your body, getting curious and having a team mindset as a starting point to tough conversations. Elissa Weinzimmer is an award-winning vocal health educator, presence coach, and the founder of Voice Body Connection. After suddenly losing her own voice at age 21, Elissa began studying the mechanics of voice. Over time she developed a unique, concrete approach that empowers performers, leaders, and speakers to optimize their voices and share them more authentically. Elissa's clients include Broadway stars, television personalities, politicians, and CEOs. She has led workshops for WeWork, Equinox, Microsoft, eBay, Instacart, and more, and has been featured in Business Insider, Thrive Global, Healthline, SheKnows, Authority Magazine, Career Contessa, Adweek, and Kajabi. "Don't forget that being truly present means listening and not just speaking." - Elissa Weinzimmer Valuable Resource: Conversation Culture https://voicebodyelissa.medium.com/cancel-culture-has-divded-us-what-we-need-is-conversation-culture-64ae568b322f Listen IN Notes: 3:39 – How listening and voice work together – communication starts with two aspects: speaking and listening. A deeper sense of truth that people sometimes fail to tap into and share. 7:39 – Talking about the concept of conversation culture – as a response to cancel culture 10:57 – When do we walk away from a conversation/cancel vs. when do we converse/engage. 15:23 – The idea of soul in vedic philosophy. Concepts of creation, maintenance, and destruction instead of good and evil. 18:08 – Elissa shares when she started being aware of voice, communication, and conversation, specifically focusing on her memories as a child. 28:02 – Turning point that allowed Elissa to speak her words for those around her and not only for herself alone. A vocal hemorrhage, acid reflux, and severe clenching of muscles that lost her trust in her voice. How she learned to do less and just be. 34:09 – She shares tips on how to help people listen to you and your voice better. 41:03 – A strategy to help you when you're running a meeting to bring charisma and presence in a remote meeting or on video. 43:22 – How to balance listening with having a voice that is authentic creating the foundation for a conversation culture. The three circles as self-focus, balanced focus, and others-focus. Key Takeaways: "Speaking and listening can happen with various organs of the body. It doesn't necessarily need to be our vocal folds and our ears, but the ability to perceive what is going on, take it in, understand it, and then share our next piece of expression is the full process. It's not complete without the half that is listening." – Elissa Weinzimmer "The deepest truth that we have to express is also able to be heard, able to be listened to, able to be received. So, if you feel like you're good at speaking your truth but your truth is intense, violently hurting people around you, I think there's always going to be a deeper layer of truth underneath that accounts for the fact that true communication includes speaking and listening." –Elissa Weinzimmer "When we have this manner of just shoving what we don't want to deal with under the rug, canceling it in some form or fashion, it's very difficult to live in alignment with our deepest truth." - Elissa Weinzimmer "There's a part of ourselves that we're not listening to, and when we're not listening to that part of ourselves, how can we truly, effectively listen to others?" - Elissa Weinzimmer "Listening doesn't just have to deal with only listening to the other person, it also has to do with listening to yourself at the same time, and never leaving yourself behind, because it's your own inner listening that's going to help you understand how to proceed." - Elissa Weinzimmer "When we get to that space of curiosity, new possibilities can arrive. New solutions to the world's problems can arise. So, to me, the purpose of doing work where I am seeking alignment with my own inner truth, expressing my truth with the world, communicating with others around me, listening to others around me, the purpose of all of all is so that we can access a quality of energy where new solutions can arise. We can expand, we can grow, we can feel more fully of ourselves; then, we're just living better lives." - Elissa Weinzimmer "Our presence draws people into presence with us." - Elissa Weinzimmer "Don't forget that being truly present means listening and not just speaking." - Elissa Weinzimmer "When we align with our inner truth, when we express it with the world, when we communicate with each other in a balanced, present way, it literally raises our vibration… just like a ripple process, it ripples around us and affects other people around us… it starts to elevate people in the society, and in that way, using our voices liberates us." - Elissa Weinzimmer Notes/Mentions: Conversation Culture https://voicebodyelissa.medium.com/cancel-culture-has-divded-us-what-we-need-is-conversation-culture-64ae568b322f Mini-Course www.voicebodyconnection.com/minicourse Connect with Elissa Weinzimmer: www.voicebodyconnection.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/elissa-weinzimmer/ Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

It's hard to function from a place of care and collaboration when everyone is under pressure. The complexity of different perspectives, opinions, budgets, deliverables, and stresses create even more challenges. In this episode, Samantha shares about horizontal leadership and how listening plays a key role, along with managing time. She shares stories about how understanding a human being's complexities help you deal with challenges in the workspace; creating an environment with a collaborative spirit. She also underscores the importance of light protocols which create a structure where teams can work in FLOW and deepwork together. They allow productivity to happen by efficiently utilizing time with collective effort. She also gets clear on the idea that people don't necessarily need sympathy, consolation, or commentary; oftentimes, they just want to be seen and heard. Samantha Slade is a collective entrepreneur, author, and participatory strategist. She believes that the social practices of togetherness are the oil that creates flow in our businesses and communities. From decision making to creation, our collective intelligence, when channeled wisely, carries the potential for productivity, innovation, and a more equitable world. Samantha poured two decades of applied research within her company, with clients and sister companies around the world, into her book Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-hierarchical Organization One Practice at a Time. Samantha is co-founder of her own horizontal company, Percolab, an international co-creation, and co-design firm. She and her colleagues are dedicated to pioneering culture-driven practices and operational tools for the future of work, learning, and governing. Business as commons is the theme of Samantha's TedX. As Samantha puts it, organizations can and should be a microcosm of the world we want to live in. "If we're really going to have a future that works for all, it's going to involve figuring out how to work together better, in ways that have both the care and the productivity. I really think we need to figure this out and the listening piece is key to that." - Samantha Slade Valuable Resource: Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time: https://www.amazon.com/Going-Horizontal-Creating-Non-Hierarchical-Organization/dp/1523095261 Listen IN Notes: 01:43 - Samantha is talking about her book, 'Going Horizontal.' It's a practical book of seven accessible, easy doorways of entry into functioning from a less hierarchical and more horizontal leadership mindset. 03:14 - Understanding the permission culture versus a proposal culture in organizations. It's about starting to look at power from a perspective of abundance. 04:16 - How she started Perco Lab, a company that sets itself up as a lab to experiment with different ways of functioning. 06:01 - Highlighting what the book focuses on: living together as human beings under different contexts. How should we show up as ourselves when we navigate the different contexts of life. 06:45 - Samantha shows how to transfer what we learning from one context into another. What you practice at home can be brought outside into your workspace. 07:42 - How real paradigm shift is meant to be challenging, acknowledging that deep learning hurts and it makes one uncomfortable. 08:59 - Looking at the idea of horizontal leadership. What is the root of the idea? 10:38 - Demonstrating leadership, not of command and control. A story of believing and trusting your people. 12:08 - A possibility of adapting horizontal leadership throughout a company's existence and being successful in it. 13:47 - How important is our capacity to listen in building a collaborative way of doing business? Samantha points to listening as a cornerstone. 15:42 – She describes a foundational protocol called 'silent witnessing'. How silence and the quiet allows us to go into our deeper wisdom. 19:14 - Understanding the dilemma of something festering over time if someone doesn't have the experience of being witnessed by others. How two minutes of "letting it all out" clears what might be getting in the way and let's everyone move forward from a negative, unspoken feeling. 20:26 - Horizontal leadership being about inclusion. What is the key piece about inclusion? 23:54 - The idea of listening being circular thinking. How to get things clear by doing away with Q&A grilling and just listening to each other's perspectives. 27:31 - Samantha explaining further that element of confused inquiry, how to go about it by not jumping to solutions; but rather trusting in the collective intelligence of those around you. 29:05 - Maybe together, we can figure this out? The collective power of everyone figuring it out together and not just one person by themselves. 30:11 – Samantha shares the loaded questions she's been asked about her experiences and best practices. She describes the four categories of questions asked in a meeting. 34:17 - The secret magic potion: Listening and time. 35:25 - What is a future that works for everyone? It is all about a listening game; to practice and play in a fun way. 37:45 -Reinforcing the skills of care, inquiry, and curiosity that makes us human with empathy and compassion. Key Takeaways: "One of the things that are assumed or understood in the education world is that deep learning hurts. If it's deep learning, it shouldn't be comfortable and easy. Real paradigm-shifting is meant to be challenging." - Samantha Slade "It's very natural for us to show up in equivalence as human beings. But as we get into the workplace, it seems that there is a lot of confusion around that, and we set up these hierarchical structures where we have to start asking permission to do something that would be completely natural." - Samantha Slade "Startups, when they are small: everybody is chatting to everybody, making decisions together, being in a strong relationship together, because it is very easy to do in a smaller group. Once you pass a threshold of a certain number, you're being invited into either functioning in a hierarchical way or a horizontal way, and people aren't aware that they've actually come across an option space, and we just go into this default way of functioning hierarchically." - Samantha Slade "In a moment of conflict and crisis, it wasn't the moment to try and learn the capacity to listen well. It is something that we needed to have as a regular organizational practice so that when those moments of crisis arrive, we could deal with them in a way that still was fully horizontal and caring." - Samantha Slade "If I have something to say, it doesn't necessarily mean that I want to have a conversation that I want to have your words of sympathy, your commentary, offers of help...it's not always that that's appropriate. So sometimes if we can have a way of having everyone go around and just speak what's alive for them and just let that hover in the center...it's a way of having everyone feeling seen and heard, and staying in organizational efficiency." - Samantha Slade "Nuancing: when do we need conversation? When do we just need some silent witnessing? Being able to nuance between those two is a fundamental skill that I think we need to have in our organizations." - Samantha Slade "If a person begins to hear that others genuinely care about hearing their perspective, then with time, they will start sharing their perspective." - Samantha Slade Notes/Mentions: Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time: https://www.amazon.com/Going-Horizontal-Creating-Non-Hierarchical-Organization/dp/1523095261 Connect with Samantha Slade: LinkedIn http://www.samanthaslade.ca/ https://twitter.com/sam5 Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

Now is the time to start designing effective organizations of the future. Are you ready to design your organization to be more empowered, innovative, and productive? What designs support organizational structures that create faster and effective decision-making processes, the kind that allows everyone the chance to speak up and be heard. Jodie Goulden is the Founder of Orgdesignworks a company that helps organizations to design and implement more effective ways of working. Jodie is formerly Head of Global Development & Learning at BASF with an overall 20 years of corporate experience at BASF, Lucent Technologies, and Deloitte. She had also worked in Germany, China, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, and held positions in Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and Change Consulting. She's a Certified Organization Design Professional, a Board Member of Organisation Design Institute as well as a Board Member of Organization Design Forum. In this episode, Jodie highlights how leadership can influence the organization in the most powerful way to bring about more effective and better decisions. She talks about how to design structures so that individuals can listen better, build effective ways of communicating and getting work done at the team level. Her ultimate goal is to support senior leaders to eventually scale up into a company-wide culture of listening. She shares one listening tool that helps teams make faster and more effective decisions that otherwise might take months. "The clearest signal that I'm in part of a generative conversation is that at the end of the conversation, I don't even know whose idea it was. It feels like it's the product of everyone's contribution, and that the ideas have just emerged from the group. The only way I know how to create that kind of conversation is through listening." - Jodie Goulden Listen IN Notes: 01:00 - Realizing the barrier that is stopping people from being good listeners 06:10 - Observations from the workplace and the need to create an organizational culture of listening 06:35 - How do you get from individual listening to organizational listening? 11:33 - Showing people the impact listening has in bringing change in the organization. 13:59 - Sharing a listening tool Jodie used to help teams come up with effective communication and faster decision-making. 16:46 - How to create a dynamic where people understand each other's perspective and not necessarily defend their point of views 23:00 - The more senior leadership gets, the more the tendency is to make individual decisions. Jodie shares what top leadership can learn about the impact a culture of listening has on the company making smarter decisions. 26:21 - The challenge for someone introverted is how to make their voice heard. How does Jodie do a phenomenal job of getting people to listen to her without talking too much? 30:16 – Being included in a meeting with top leadership is one challenge if you want to influence the organization. How does she design a meeting that allows more voices to be heard? 32:38 - Understanding link between listening and innovation. How does generative listening foster an innovative environment in the company? 35:34 – Feedback can be a huge stress for managers and employees alike. It plays a role in the way we set up our organizations. How to listen with good intentions, with positive regard, and without judgment or criticism of the person that you're listening to? 41:24 - The challenges of engaging with diverse teams from different cultures to communicate with each other 44:12 - Ways to connect with Jodie Key Takeaways: "I had to learn that I don't have to solve any problem when I'm listening to someone. That being a good listener, in itself, is already a good intervention." - Jodie Goulden "I was thinking about how you can be listening for clues that other people are willing to change, and you can find allies. If you're really paying attention, you'll find that there's a lot of people who want to change and who are willing to make changes." - Jodie Goulden "There are different ways to make your point. So, if you feel more comfortable writing your ideas, rather than speaking your ideas, then you can look for ways to get your point in writing." - Jodie Goulden "To be able to listen with good intentions, with positive regard, and without judgment or criticism of the person that you're listening to (when giving feedback). We know that that's very important to create psychological safety, and to allow people to have a conversation that is constructive, in which they'll leave the conversation feeling good." - Jodie Goulden "There are a number of ways to do listening. One is by going around the room and inviting everyone to speak, rather than just letting the people who are louder to speak." - Jodie Goulden Connect with Jodie Goulden: orgdesignworks.com LinkedIn Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

Each person can be unique in how they show up as a listener. Even if they are at the exact same meeting and listen to the exact same information, each person's perspective may be different from the rest. This is normally frustrating, yet when we understand different types of listening, we can tap into the potential of cognitive diversity so that we can work smarter together. As a leader, teacher, or even a parent, you'll love listening to Graham share his experience to support us to listen better in more ways than we normally consider. Learn how to understand people better, so they feel respected, valued and heard, leading to higher performance in organizations and at home. Graham Bodie​ is an internationally recognized communication scholar whose work focuses on what all organizations and individuals need to do better, LISTEN.​ ​Based on his extensive knowledge of ​how individuals and teams can more effectively communicate and build consensus​, Dr. Bodie facilitates customized workshops and delivers compelling keynote addresses for groups of all sizes. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and featured in the ​Wall Street Journal​, Psychology Today, and on National Public Radio. Dr. Bodie received his B.A. and M.A. from Auburn University and his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He teaches courses in Integrated Marketing Communication​ at the University of Mississippi and dedicates substantial time to mend our frayed social fabric through his work with the non-profit Listen First Project​. In this episode, Graham shares how listening is not one discipline, instead a broad field in diverse areas. He helps us understand 'cognitive diversity in listening,' recognizing it as advantageous to organizations increasing effectiveness, productivity, and team members' motivation. He also highlights the 'listen first mindset"' approach focused on inclusivity in diversity, creating more understanding and better teamwork. "When you listen well, people feel heard. And when people feel heard, they feel respected and valued. And then inside an organization, when they feel respected and valued, they stay. And they work harder, and they're more productive." - Graham Bodie Valuable Resource: The Handbook of Listening by Graham Bodie: https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Listening-Handbooks-Communication-Media-ebook Listen IN Notes: 02:02 - Recognizing that listening is much more complex than he originally considered drew him to research listening as a behavior attitude within social support in close relationships. 06:47 - Graham sharing his thoughts on how he perceived the art of listening as happening in the field of communication. When in fact, listening is a multi-disciplinary field approached differently by various experts. 11:27 - Talking about his book called 'Handbook of Listening'. And how Listening is not approached in just one way. 12:58 - Discussion on appreciating cognitive diversity in listening. Recognizing each individual's different approach to listening provides a more robust and rich perspective about the information. 17:37 - Bring awareness that there are multiple ways to listen, that those different ways of listening have their strengths and challenges. 20:11 - Listening beyond eye contact. What does the power of listening translate to? 21:17 - Developing a culture of listening in an organization. This means listening first, rather than speaking first, management, and heavy hierarchy top down. 28:24 - Listening isn't an agreement. Graham explains how listening helps understand different perspectives and is the basis under which we operate, taking into consideration the role we play as parents, or as organizational leaders, teachers, or any other profession. 32:46 - Understanding goes deeper than just the content. Consider two meanings of messages, the content level meaning and the relational level meaning. 36:57 - Teaching the notion of the 80/20 rule of listening. What would meetings be like if everyone would be curious and listen to each other's perspectives? 39:24 - How is listening affected in this time of pandemic when everyone stays home? Graham shares personal challenges of leadership inside his very own home. 42:56 - How people in our circle influence our listening behaviors, how we show up as listeners can be learned 45:08 - Unlearning old patterns and relearning new ways of listening. What's your blueprint for listening? 48:20 - What is empathy? What is it like to have a listening approach to empathy using 'Barefoot Listening'? 52:28 - Talking about 'Future Listening.' What is 'Emerging Perspectives' all about? 55:47 - Graham's almost book chapter on 'Listening to the Universe' 56:33 - Learning from how animals listen. Graham is talking about the physiology and the biology of listening within different animal species, and how humans are different and similar. 1:00:02 - Imagine spending time cultivating a listen first mindset within yourself, your family, and your organization? Key Takeaways: "[Listening is] about people, it's about relationships, it's about being inspired by someone or a small group of people, and then finding your voice within that relationship." - Graham Bodie "The goal of listening isn't an agreement. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. The goal of listening has to be understanding...at a fundamental level, listening first to understand is what we need to be operating under."- Graham Bodie "It's about shedding your perspective, shedding your agenda at least for the moment, and turning to wonder and seeking to understand the 'why.' Not just the content, but what is underlying this person's belief, what's causing this person to tick in this way, and what's leading them to the conclusion they're coming to...if we can create something new out of your perspective and my perspective that's beautiful. That's what listening, at least fundamentally to me, is geared toward." - Graham Bodie "We've been taught that talking is power, that speaking is leading. If we infused societies with the flip of that, which is that listening is leading - how much more effective and efficient and productive and kind would we be as organizations, as societies, as people?"- Graham Bodie "If you're giving advice, you're assuming that you understand the problem. And if you understand the problem, you're assuming you asked the questions and you really fully took the time to understand what that problem is from that person's point of view and perspective and life experiences. The only way for me to know your life experiences is to listen to you."- Graham Bodie "Think about, in your life, the way in which your opinion about the importance of listening is matched with the fervor with which you seek to really cultivate it. And if there's a mismatch there, then what can you do to really put your money, energy, or resources where your mouth is. Put your money where your ears are!"- Graham Bodie Notes/Mentions: The Handbook of Listening by Graham Bodie: https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Listening-Handbooks-Communication-Media-ebook/dp/B08C5M7S8H Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All by Bernard T. Ferrari: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Listening-Mastering-Critical-Business/dp/1591844622 The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind by Seth Horowitz: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Sense-Hearing-Shapes-Mind/dp/1608198839 ECHO Listening Intelligence: https://www.echolistening.com/ William Winter Institute: https://www.winterinstitute.org/ Listen First Project: http://www.listenfirstproject.org/ Connect with Graham Bodie: E:gbodie@lsu.edu LinkedIn Connect with Raquel Ark: www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

Do you feel heard by the organization you work for as an employee? Which companies do you feel listened to as a customer? What have you experienced to know whether your voice is being heard by politicians? Do your employees, customers and stakeholders feel heard...or not? How can we transform 100s, even 1000s of potential critics into super promoters by listening to their needs and responding accordingly? Are you aware of the value scaling listening can bring to your organization? And how to architect scaling listening? We know listening is essential in interpersonal communication. Yet, how can we scale listening so that we can respond to hundreds of thousands people and bring value to the organization at a larger scale? Jim Macnamara is on a mission to spread the value and importance of listening, even more at large scale. He is a distinguished Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology in Sydney. Jim is internationally recognized for his research into the evaluation of public communication and for his work on organizational listening. In this episode, Jim shares his experiences and the lessons he learned from working in communications almost his whole life. He continues to promote the value of communication and listening in different settings, specifically in the business and political setting. He also explains how technology can be a big help in communicating and listening to what your stakeholders need so that you can respond transforming organizational detractors into cheerleaders. Enjoy listening in. "Communications more about what arrives in the minds of people and what happens then it is about transmitting the information. Communication's got to be a two-way process." - Jim Macnamara Valuable Resource: Be sure to check out Jim's Book: Organizational Listening: The Missing Essential in Public Communication. Listen in Notes: 02:16 - How spending almost his whole life working in communications led him to discover the value of listening. Diving into communication-related works helped him see the mistakes made by companies when it comes to listening. 05:22 - How do you value your audience's responses? How can you listen at large scale? 07:06 - Acknowledging their response and making use of the new technology we have- how gathering the information from audience responses is now easier to analyze through the use of technology 08:47 - How do we respond to these data? How can we apply organizational listening? 09:56 - Jim shares how analyzing these data and responding in a way that your audience feels that they are listened to can help increase your sales and turn detractors into cheerleaders of your company 14:14 - The first steps in the architecture of listening. How you can take the step in listening to your own organization. 16:51 - How training your team of call center people can create a positive impact on your customers and the customer service team. Getting good feedback because this is great for the morale of your employees. 18:01 - Internal communication is very important. Giving value to your audience's response and training your team to listen can help improve your audience feedback and your company or organization as well 21:29 - How having proper policies for listening can lead to a better articulation and communication cycle with your customers and employees 23:59 - The issue of growth and scale in organizations and their effects on communication within the organization 26:41 - How technology nowadays can be used as a way to listen to your audience even on a wide scale. The impact of technology in listening and how it changed the way of responding to your audience's concerns 28:48 - How can you respond to your audience in a way that you show them you are giving value to their concerns, comments, and responses? What do you do with the gathered data from the use of technology and how do you respond to those given data? 30:55 - Listening in a politician's perspective and how they should listen to the voter's concerns instead of persuading. How politicians construct their surveys with a fixed list of questions instead of listening to their voter's concerns 33:25 - Communication is not a one-way transmission of information. What is the definition of true communication and how you should understand the value of it? 34:54 - Leaders should stop talking and start listening. How listening to concerns instead of constantly distributing information should be valued more by leaders 35:51 - If you don't have communication, you don't have society. How political leaders, especially in democratic countries, should listen and keep in touch with their citizens 39:04 - The importance of fact-checking in avoiding misinformation as a hazard in communication, especially in politics Key Takeaways: If you don't have communication, you just don't have society. And so that to me is very important. - Jim Macnamara If you ask a question and don't listen to the answers, then you actually do the opposite of what you're trying to intend. - Jim Macnamara "In simple terms, organizations need to shut up and start listening!"- Jim Macnamara "An organization has got to believe that there is real value in listening."- Jim Macnamara "We've spent a lot of money on communication...but actually, the value of listening comes in far, far higher than the value of putting out information. Putting out information is very costly."- Jim Macnamara "In all listening, the first thing you do is acknowledge."- Jim Macnamara "So often when we say 'communication,' what we mean is distributing information. One way transmission of information is not communication...communication is more about what arrives in the minds of people and what happens after than it is about transmitting information. If you're working in communication, you should be spending half of your time, half of your budget, and half of your resources on listening, and the other half on speaking and distributing information. That would be true communication."- Jim Macnamara "What we do often is decide what information we will send out, and we decide what form we will send it in. We've already made all of those decisions, so why not stop and ask a lot more questions, and then respond to what people need?"- Jim Macnamara Resources Mentioned: AMEC Summit on Measurement of Communication - https://amecorg.com/summits/2020-programme/ Achmea - https://www.achmea.nl/en/about-us/achmea-foundation Obama's Automated Emails - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/hey-i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-this-brilliant-obama-email-scheme/265725/ Communications as Culture: Essays on Media and Society - James W. Carey: https://books.google.com/books/about/Communication_as_Culture.html?id=AcSufbsE7TwC Organizational Listening: The Missing Essential in Public Communication - Jim Macnamara: https://www.amazon.com/Organizational-Listening-Missing-Essential-Communication/dp/1433130521 Beyond Post-Communication: Challenging Disinformation, Deception, and Manipulation - Jim Macnamara: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/71209 Connect with Jim Mcnamara: Linkedin Twitter Connect with Raquel Ark www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

Imagine if you would have told your teacher that the way they just taught something was really lame? It probably would NOT be a good outcome. At a school in Austin, Texas, teachers, or as they call themselves, GUIDES would respond differently. They listen, ask questions, and let students co-create the curriculum so that they LOVE going to school. And teachers love going to work because kids love going to school. Sounds like a school of the future and they are doing it now. Mike Yates is on a mission to transform the K-12 education experience. He is a guide / academic coach at Alpha. He is co-founder of Guide, TedX speaker multiple times, and an education consultant. In this episode, Mike shares stories that have inspired his mission to transform the future of education where students learn through great experiences. They are empowered by having their voice heard AND acted upon. Educational experiences are co-created using a continuous conversation between guides and students. And this is revolutionizing learning. Knowing their voice has power has created an environment where students and teachers, alike, learn from each other fostering an environment of respect even amidst differing ideas and opinions. Enjoy Listening in! "Because kids know that their voice has power, we're putting them in situations where they can easily voice their opinions and where we will hear, where we will actually listen to respond." - Mike Yates For more ideas, tools, and resources that will help you master the art of listening, subscribe to listening ALCHEMY here. Listen notes 00:20 - An incident in school that led him to be cynical about the educational system. The constant process of frustration leading him to what is different. 03:26 - What could be in the minds of kids when they have a negative perception about school or a teacher? How does this relate to cultural differences and communication barriers? 08:09 - How does it play out when a kid feels he is a part of a process? How not to create a negative memory of the positive experience? 10:09 - Creating experiences that empower kids' abilities and talents; getting them to participate in whatever capacities they can contribute gives them the opportunity to learn through having a positive experience. 13:05 - Giving kids' voice power and what it takes. Translating this into asking, listening, participating, and talking. 16:46 - Teaching differently takes a different mindset. Recalibrating our approach. 19:42 - What does respect look like in this environment? 20:38 - Public listening is just as important as public speaking 25:10 - The Accept or Reject exercise. Finding common ground amidst disagreement in ideas and opinions. 28:00 - Learning the difference between respecting your idea and respecting you as a person. 31:49 - Mike's dream for Alpha's students Key Takeaways: "Listening is communication. When I am listening to someone, I am actually telling them something. I am actually telling them I care about them . I am telling them I care about what they are saying. " - Mike Yates "Students may, in those moments, feel like "nobody's here for me" because sometimes processes and procedures and sometimes cultural differences and communication barriers actually do create that for a child." - Mike Yates "I think that the role of the school, and hopefully we're able to do this at Alpha, is to create a shared experience between all parties....where everybody can agree that it was a good experience." - Mike Yates "We're actually choosing humility, so that we can create an experience where the kid walks away and says, I love coming to school. And we also say I love coming to work because my kids love coming to school." - Mike Yates "The way to create the experience that all parties agree is literally communication. Talking and listening. Talking and listening. And then responding." - Mike Yates "You don't have to agree with everything someone is saying. But you should be able to listen to what they say, accept that they believe that and still have a productive conversation even if you disagree." - Mike Yates "I think public listening is just as important as public speaking." - Mike Yates "Public listening is what you do to understand where someone is coming from." - Mike Yates Connect with Mike Yates LinkedIn Twitter www.yatesmike.com www.go-alpha.org Connect with Raquel Ark www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn

What can happen when three strangers from three different countries come together and listen to each other deeply? They learn to live well and become wiser. In this episode, Raquel interviews Susanne Conrad, a learning consultant and online coach in Germany, Martin Farrell, an international facilitator and coach in England and Patricia Koster, a transformation facilitator in the Netherlands. Susanne, Martin, and Patricia met online when they joined Raquel to develop prototypes about how to integrate listening into education and training. One prototype that has been developed through this process is a program called Live Well, Die Wise. This program emerged as Patricia, Susanne and Martin listened deeply to each other about topics of transitions in life. They offer a program called Live Well, Die Wise because they want to share the gift of deep listening in an online environment about certain tipping points in an individual's life. Enjoy their stories about how listening deeply has led to meaningful work together. Enjoy listening in. Background: The Live Well, Die Wise program emerged out of a project named "The Virtual Listening Campus"(VLC), where a team of 16 members from 6 different cultures developed prototypes focusing on evidence-based listening in education and training to catalyze a listening movement. The Virtual Listening Campus was part of a four-month program sponsored by the Presencing Institute u.lab 2x, helping teams to develop prototypes that have eco-system impact. The VLC team continues to further their work around listening in a variety of ways. For more information, please contact Raquel Ark. You can read information about Presencing Institutes' u.lab 2x program here. "Listening is the doorway to understanding, the bridge to connections, and the foundation of trust." - Raquel Ark "Finding the courage to speak had also to do with allowing yourself to be seen and your vulnerability of being different." - Patricia Koster ----- Join the Live More, Die Wise Virtual Listening Group To Know More Visit: https://susanneconrad.jimdofree.com/actual-offer/ ----- Timestamps: 01:35 - How listening changed their lives and how it benefited them and their work. Susanne, Martin, and Patricia share their experiences about what made them passionate about listening. 03:25 - Listening has also unleashed the power of their voice. They talk about when they noticed the relationship between listening and speaking and how it helped them have a voice. 04:48 - They share their realizations about the underrated connection of being listened to and being seen. 11:16 - They talk about the program they developed, as they themselves listened to each other deeply. 12:18 - What is a Virtual Listening Group? 15:06 - How did they create a program through listening to each other? 19: 33 - Patricia shares a last thought on how we can find our own voice by listening and becoming wiser. Key Takeaways: "The first experiences of this really deep listening gave me a feeling of 'I am seen as a whole human being' and that was very powerful." - Susanne Conrad "Finding the courage to speak had also to do with allowing yourself to be seen and your vulnerability of being different." - Patricia Koster "It was very simple, and it was very powerful because you would just listen to the other person. And through that listening, profound changes took place." - Martin Farrell "As we know, it's when you let go, that new opportunities can come. But we ferociously hold on to things, even if they are things we don't really want to hold on to." - Martin Farrell "We don't know how the new world will look like, but I think it's exactly this moment that we can feel strong if we realize we've done this before in life." - Patricia Koster Connect with Susanne Conrad https://susanneconrad.jimdofree.com +49 174 9286816 susanne.conrad@gmx.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-conrad-8767aa93 Connect with Martin Farrell http://www.get2thepoint.org/about.php martin.farrell@get2thepoint.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingfarrell Connect with Patricia Koster https://livewelldiewise.eu/ Mobile: +31 618 841862 Email: patricia@livewelldiewise.eu https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciakoster Connect with Raquel Ark www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn If you enjoyed today's podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcast here and share with the people you think might find this helpful. Thanks, so much for supporting more high-quality, effective listening beyond what we typically consider! Enjoy listening

Listening training can improve workplace performance, creating an environment where employees feel empowered and collaboration is fostered. Dr. Guy Itzchakov is an Assistant Professor at the University of Haifa, Department of Human Services. He earned his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2017. He did research that draws on Carl Rogers's theory focusing on how attentive and non-judgmental listening impacts speakers' emotions and cognitions. His research has been published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. In this episode, Guy shares current longitudinal research on listening training in organizations and its impact over time. He shares his insights on how listening helps teams connect, creating a bond while supporting their performance as employees, even in difficult conversations. Guy is looking for more organizations that would like to take part in his research on listening training and would love to hear from you. Enjoy listening in. "You will not become a better listener just by reading or talking. It takes practice." - Guy Itzchakov For more ideas, tools, and resources that will help you master the art of listening, subscribe to listening ALCHEMY here. Timestamps: 01:03 - From an interdisciplinary background to organizational behavior. How he started researching 'Listening' 03:00 - His proudest moment about the research he did. How embarrassment turned to pride in the work that he does. 04:54 - Sharing his experience volunteering by facilitating listening circles in Israel which promotes a connection between people in the Israeli society. Guy talks about an article published "Can Holding a Stick Improve Listening in the Workplace?" which was published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 09:17 - How did the 'listening circle' he initiated transform participants? 14:19 - Perspective taking and Competence. Taking a deeper understanding about handling a difficult conversation with customers and how listening empowers employees in the workplace 22:04 - Improving employees' sense of relatedness to the team and the impact the 'listening circle' has on employees when it comes to performing well at work 24:36 - "You will not become a better listener just by reading" Guy shares helpful thoughts on how to become an effective listener Key Takeaways: "Participants in the 'listening circle' experience a greater reduction in their social anxiety, they were more relaxed, they became more self-aware of their inner thoughts." - Guy Itzchakov "What the listening circle does is first and foremost create a psychologically safe environment. When they experience this safety and intimacy, suddenly they want to share and they become aware of thoughts and perspectives which they were not aware of before." - Guy Itzchakov "When you listen well, your own wellbeing will improve through being less anxious and you will feel that you are better at what you do." - Guy Itzchakov "Training employees in listening empowers them." - Guy Itzchakov "Listening circles in my view, allow people to take off some of the defensiveness and the shields that we have in our daily lives and creates a bond between people." - Guy Itzchakov Connect with Guy Itzchakov LinkedIn Connect with Raquel Ark www.listeningalchemy.com Mobile: + 491732340722 contact@listeningalchemy.com LinkedIn If you enjoyed today's podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcast here and share it with the people you think might find this helpful. Thanks, so much for supporting more high-quality, effective listening beyond what we typically consider! Enjoy listening